Portion sizes and tracking

We are all individuals – and so our needs are individual to us as well. That means that the amount of food our body needs can vary greatly amongst individuals – it depends on our height, weight, age, sex, the amount of lean muscle mass we hold, our metabolism, the levels of our physical activity, etc. The latter can also mean that our own needs can vary day to day – if we have a day or a week when we are on our feet all the time, chances are we’ll need more food than on days when we are mostly sedentary. So how to approach the topic of portion sizes? It’s important we learn to listen to our body and that we nail down some basics.

Counting calories

If you are counting calories, it is important that you track or write down the calories you have actually consumed – counted for the portion you really had. The most accurate way to know your portion size and how many calories it contains, is to weigh the food with kitchen scales. If you decide to go that route, when you’re cooking or preparing food, it’s best to weigh the ingredients raw and find the calories for the foods when raw (for example, if cooking a chicken breast, weigh it before you cook it and look up the calories of raw chicken breast). You can also weigh them after cooking, but make sure you again look up the calories for the foods when they are cooked (in this case cooked chicken breast) – as the weight/volume of foods can change in the process of cooking.

If you don’t have kitchen scales to hand or don’t wish to weigh your foods but are still counting calories, you can use household measures – a cup, tablespoon, teaspoon, etc. If you want to be more accurate, specify as ‘heaped tablespoon’, ‘level tablespoon’ and so on.

If you don’t want to count your calories, that’s no worries either – you can just use your own judgement. Whatever you decide to do, remember to be honest with yourself. If you went a little overboard while having a meal, that’s absolutely okay – just acknowledge it and move on.

Another thing to remember – it is not about starving your body of the calories it needs – less isn’t always better. Don’t slash your calories all the way down below your BMR, your body needs calories to function properly! And all activity you do will cost your body calories on top of that as well, so starving yourself isn’t the way to go! Slow and steady wins the race.

Although it is definitely not just about calories, but also the quality and different types of food we eat; we can still put on weight if we eat too much of the good stuff.

Food diary

One way to explore your eating habits or to keep track of your diet is to keep a food diary. You can do this for a few days in a week (make sure to include both weekdays and weekend days) to discover any hidden habits around your diet, or you can keep it while you are trying to manage your weight (decrease or increase it).

If you decide to go ahead with it, make sure you write down absolutely everything you ate (and drank, if it’s not plain water) – even that biscuit with your tea, or that extra slice of bread you went back for with your soup. Make sure not to forget about condiments, sauces and drinks containing calories – these are often dismissed, but they can very well be the culprit when it comes to weight loss plateau or weight creeping up. It’s also important to put down quantities of the foods – that can be in grams (perhaps the most accurate method, but not always possible), household measures (heaped teaspoon, level tablespoon, small bowl, etc.) or for example how many slices of bread, how many crumpets etc. – for those remember to include how big they were (thick or thin slice? Normal or giant crumpets?). Without this, your food diary will be very inaccurate.

If you are trying to get to understand your eating habits, you can also write down how hungry you felt before eating the meal and what mood you were in – this method can be particularly useful if you are struggling with emotional eating or eating out of boredom, as it can reveal patterns – if you aware of your triggers and behaviours, you can work on tackling them. You can use the template below or just write it down on a piece of paper, in your phone or tablet – whatever works for you!